Fruit Trees for Estes Park, Colorado

Estes Park has two NOAA weather stations at almost exactly the same height, 7,812 and 7,820 feet. The one on the south side of the valley gets a median 116 frost-free days a year. The one west of downtown, out toward Beaver Point and Moraine Park, gets 104. Twelve days of season, lost at the same elevation. That's the short lesson in fruit trees for Estes Park, Colorado: where cold air slides off the mountains and settles on a still night decides what you can grow and what will actually crop.

This map covers the Estes Valley at the east edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, from Moraine Park and Fall River through downtown, Lake Estes and the Fish Creek side, down the Big Thompson Canyon past Loveland Heights and Glen Comfort, and out to Big Elk Meadows. Type your address in the box on the map to get the number for your own place, and the list of what we sell that has come through it.

How to read this map

The number on the map is the 30-year planning low, the number to plan for at that spot. Our cold hardiness calculator uses the same number; it leans to the safe side, and it isn't the record. The MFTC zone is that number in half zones. "Typical winter" is an average year's coldest night, the kind of number USDA zones are built on, which is why USDA zones read warmer than ours. The spring layer shows how many degrees warmer or colder a spot runs than downtown Estes Park, our reference, on a still, clear night at bloom.

The middle of the valley's growing ground plans for −26°F (MFTC 4a), and half of it falls between −27°F and −25°F. Downtown plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −15°F. Moraine Park, Big Elk Meadows and Stanley Heights plan for −29°F and the coldest ground runs near −30°F, while the warmest tenth of growing ground near downtown plans for −24°F (MFTC 4b). The spring layer spreads much wider and changes fast: the downtown pin, on a toe slope 20 feet above the floor, reads 6°F warmer than the ground within about 200 yards of it, which is what the reference averages.

Why the map looks the way it does

Estes Park sits in a bowl the Arapaho called "the Circle," ringed by Lumpy Ridge to the north (10,068 feet at the Needles), Prospect Mountain to the south, Castle and Oldman Mountains to the west, Twin Sisters Peaks to the southeast and Longs Peak, 14,259 feet, in the far southwest corner. The Big Thompson comes in through Moraine Park and Fall River through Horseshoe Park, both glacial meadows. They meet downtown at about 7,523 feet, fill Lake Estes behind Olympus Dam, and leave through the Big Thompson Canyon, 25 miles down to the plains west of Loveland. On a clear, calm night, cold air made on the high meadows and slopes slides down those river corridors into town and on down the canyon. That's your airshed: high flats that make cold, a basin that catches it, and one main way out.

Moraine Park is the textbook cold flat, a meadow between two moraines left when a glacial lake silted up, with soil too wet for most trees. At 8,011 feet on our map, about 400 feet above downtown, it still plans for −29°F (MFTC 4a) and reads 5°F colder than downtown on a bloom night. Flat, grassy, wet ground makes its own cold under a clear sky, and the grass keeps the soil's stored warmth from reaching the air. In town the floor is only a sliver (the map finds about 34 times as much bench ground as floor within 3 miles of downtown), and it plans for −29°F.

The slopes are the thermal belt. Within 3 miles of downtown, ground 100 to 700 feet above the floor plans for a median −26°F, and the warmest tenth of growing ground −24°F. Oldman Mountain, 580 feet above the floor, plans for −26°F, Castle Mountain, 970 feet up, −25°F, and Prospect Mountain, 1,220 feet up, −23°F (MFTC 4b); on the spring layer they read 13°F to 15°F warmer than downtown. Bear Lake, at 9,500 feet and 1,680 feet above the station west of downtown, gets 101 frost-free days to that station's 104. Free air cools about 3.6°F per 1,000 feet, but on still nights the bottoms come loose from it. And the town station that loses 12 days of season to its twin sits near Beaver Point, on the Big Thompson below Moraine Park, where our map reads 2°F colder than downtown on a bloom night.

The winter numbers run close together for two reasons. Wind is one: State climatologist Russ Schumacher calls December through February the windy season, and the December 2025 chinook windstorm brought gusts of about 100 mph. A night like that has no cold pool. Arctic air is the other. Canadian cold, often right behind a plains blizzard, brings below-zero nights to the east slope, and arctic air arriving on a wind runs colder up high. Around February 1 and 2, 2011, Bear Lake read −33°F and Wild Basin −34°F while the town stations read −28°F and −27°F. So the winter map spans only about 5°F over most of the growing ground (−29°F to −24°F), while the spring layer, built for still nights, spreads far wider, from 6°F colder than downtown at Big Elk Meadows to 15°F warmer on Oldman Mountain.

Town heat and the lake count for little here. Downtown plans for −28°F against −29°F on the floor around it, and Lake Estes, at 185 acres, mostly freezes. Aspect counts for more. South-facing montane slopes carry open ponderosa and grass because the sun dries them, while north slopes hold Douglas fir and lodgepole; sunny ground ripens fruit best but blooms earlier and sunscalds more. And the east side of the park is the drier, windier side (about 19 inches of precipitation a year at Beaver Meadows against about 34 at Bear Lake), so don't count on deep snow over your roots all winter.

Downtown Estes Park and Elkhorn Avenue

Downtown and Elkhorn Avenue sit where Fall River meets the Big Thompson, right where both corridors deliver their cold. Downtown plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −15°F. Within 3 miles the floor plans for −29°F, the benches −26°F and the warmest tenth −24°F (MFTC 4b), a 5°F swing in winter and far more at bloom.

Down by the river, plant like it's the floor, with fruit that has come through −40°F or colder: Haralson apple (−45°F), Summercrisp pear (−40°F), Toka plum (−45°F) and Evan's Bali tart cherry, good to at least −40°F to −45°F. Twenty feet up a south-facing slope is where to try a sweet cherry. For subdivisions we can't place from a source (Windcliff Estates, Meadowdale Hills, Eagle Rock Ranches, Wonderview Village, Elk Ridge and the rest), type your address in the box. The rule holds everywhere: height above the nearest creek or river bottom matters more than distance from town.

Stanley Heights, Olympus Heights and the Lake Estes shore

North of downtown the ground rises toward Lumpy Ridge and faces south into the sun; the Stanley Hotel was built with a southern exposure. Stanley Heights, about 7,564 feet on our map and 10 feet above the floor, plans for −29°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −16°F, and reads 2°F warmer than downtown on a bloom night. Olympus Heights, by Lake Estes and Olympus Dam at about 7,505 feet, plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −16°F, and reads 1°F warmer. The deep winter pool covers these toe slopes, but on a spring night cold drains off a slope and keeps moving, while on the flats it sits.

This is also where the valley's old records were set. NOAA places the long-record Estes Park station (67 years on file, 1917 to 2025) on the north side of the Lake Estes basin, within about a mile of both neighborhoods. It hit −39°F on February 1, 1951, and −38°F in 1963, none of it in the winters our number is built on. So plant trees here that have come through −35°F or colder: Haralson, Wealthy (−50°F), Ure pear (−40°F), and Toka, a good pollenizer for Superior plum (−35°F).

Beaver Point, Moraine Avenue and Moraine Park

West of downtown, out toward the park's Beaver Meadows entrance, the Big Thompson comes down from Moraine Park along Moraine Avenue past Beaver Point. Beaver Point, about 7,654 feet on our map, sits at the edge of the pool on a 7 percent slope with no height above the floor. It plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −15°F, and reads 2°F colder than downtown on a bloom night.

Moraine Park, upstream, is the coldest named place on the map. Nobody's planting in the national park, but any flat, grassy, wet meadow ground along the river behaves the same way: figure on −29°F and a bloom night 5°F colder than downtown. Stick to plants that have come through −50°F, led by the ones that shrug off bloom frost: Honeyberry (−50°F; fully open haskap flowers take 19°F without damage) and Montana Black Currant (−50°F; ours fruited well in 2026 after its flower buds saw about 22°F). Nanking Cherry (−50°F), Kerr applecrab (−50°F) and Dolgo crabapple (−55°F) round it out. Get 20 or 30 feet up the valley side for plums and pears.

Fall River, Fall River Estates and Horseshoe Park

Fall River comes down over Chasm Falls and crosses Horseshoe Park, a flat glacial valley at about 8,524 feet that makes cold on a still night, and carries it into town. Fall River Estates, west of town, sits up off the river: about 7,952 feet on our map, 120 feet above the floor on a steep slope cut by a draw. It plans for −27°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −14°F, and reads 2°F warmer than downtown at bloom.

That's ground with options. Spring frost layers usually top out 30 to 200 feet above the ground, and Utah State says ground 50 to 100 feet above the valley floor is less freeze prone. Try Lapins or Gold sweet cherry (−35°F), the hardiest sweet cherries we've found, and an apricot like Westcot (−45°F) if you can live with crops only some years. Plant beside the draw, not in it, and watch for a fence, road fill or tree line across the slope below you; any of them can back cold air up into your trees.

Fish Creek, Carriage Hills, Marys Lake and Prospect Mountain

South of downtown, Prospect Mountain rises to about 8,855 feet with the aerial tramway up its side. Fish Creek, southeast of downtown, runs down to the Big Thompson in town. Fish Creek Road is the spine of Carriage Hills, and Uplands at Fish Creek is another Fish Creek neighborhood. One Carriage Hills listing describes a wooded, sloping lot with a south-facing house, about the setup you'd pick for fruit. Marys Lake, on the south side of the valley, is a small reservoir; don't count on it for warmth.

Carriage Hills has no pin of its own, but the Fish Creek bottom is floor ground (the floor near downtown plans for −29°F), and the sloping lots up off it are bench ground (benches near downtown plan for about −26°F, the warmest tenth of growing ground −24°F, MFTC 4b). The station NOAA places on this side has the longest season here, 116 frost-free days. Prospect Mountain itself, 1,220 feet above the floor, plans for −23°F (MFTC 4b) and reads 13°F warmer than downtown at bloom. On a south-facing slope up Fish Creek Road, try Superior and Toka plums, sweet cherries and even an apricot. Keep the tender ones out of the creek bottom and any swale draining to it.

The Big Thompson Canyon: Loveland Heights, Glen Comfort and Glen Haven

Below Olympus Dam the river drops into the Big Thompson Canyon, and on a still night the valley's cold drains down it. Loveland Heights (about 7,326 feet) and Glen Comfort (about 7,177 feet), on US 34 inside the map's east edge, both sit in a cold-air drainage channel on our map. Both plan for −28°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −15°F and −16°F. Lower doesn't mean warmer here: both read 5°F colder than downtown on a bloom night, because the canyon carries the cold off the whole basin. Drake, at 6,162 feet just past the map's edge, is where the North Fork comes in.

Plant the sunniest spot you have up off the river as you would the floor in town: apples, applecrabs and pears that have come through −40°F, Brookred plum (−50°F) with Toka, tart cherries and bush fruit. Glen Haven, at 7,231 feet on the North Fork right at the map's northeast edge, sits in the same kind of narrow creek bottom; type your address to see its number. If you're down the canyon at Loveland, the Denver, Boulder and Northern Front Range map covers you.

Big Elk Meadows and the Allenspark side

Big Elk Meadows sits in the far southeast corner at about 7,535 feet, in a creek-bottom draw on our map with no height above the floor. It plans for −29°F (MFTC 4a), typical winter about −16°F, and at 6°F colder than downtown on a bloom night it has the worst spring reading of any named town or neighborhood on the map. Plant it like Moraine Park, with crabs, applecrabs, pears like Bolshaya (−50°F), Nanking cherries and bush fruit, and save the highest, sunniest corner for anything that blooms early.

Allenspark, just south of the map up Highway 7, gets lumped in with Estes Park by real estate sites. Its old station (Allenspark 2SE, 8,243 feet, 1945 to 1993) is a good check on the town basin. On February 1, 1951, Estes Park read −39°F and Allenspark −32°F; on January 10, 1962, −37°F and −30°F. The basin station ran 7°F colder both mornings while sitting about 630 feet lower. On January 12, 1963, both hit −38°F, the kind of deep arctic morning that fills everything.

Spring frost and bloom in the Estes Valley

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians put the last spring 32°F on May 25 at the south-side station and May 30 west of downtown, and the last 28°F on May 15 at both. One spring in ten the last 32°F comes as late as June 10 on the south side and June 23 west of downtown. The Park Service's average May low for Estes Park is 34°F, so frost is routine right through May.

Open blossoms of apple, pear, cherry, peach, apricot and plum all start dying at about 28°F. Most fruit can lose half its blossoms with little effect (clustered fruit like cherries less so), and only about 15 percent of apple blossoms need to set for a crop. So the 8°F between Stanley Heights and Big Elk Meadows on the spring layer can be the difference between a thinned crop and none. Down on the Front Range, a Castle Pines variety chart says apricots rarely fruit there because of April frosts. CSU adds that bees don't fly in cool, rainy weather, so keep your pollenizer close.

Put apricots, sweet cherries and plums highest, apples and pears lower, and give the creek bottoms, meadow flats and canyon to Honeyberry, currants, gooseberries and later-blooming apples (a Colorado master gardener recommends later bloomers for exactly this reason). Through bloom, mow under 2 inches, don't till, and water a day or two before a frost night. Frost cloth of 0.5, 0.9 and 1.5 ounces per square yard gains about 4°F, 6°F and 8°F. If you buy leafed-out trees grown below 6,000 feet, CSU says they may not be hardened off, so hold them until after the last frost.

Fall comes early too: the first 32°F comes a median September 12 west of downtown and September 19 on the south side, well under the 135 frost-free days the University of Vermont uses to mark short-season country. Pick early apples and pears. Freezes before trees harden off kill at temperatures a January tree shrugs off; after Western Slope orchards hit 3°F on October 27, 2020, CSU tied the damage to full irrigation through a warm fall. Taper water from mid-August.

What the weather records say

NOAA station records, coldest on file: Estes Park −39°F (February 1, 1951) at the long-record station, which also hit −35°F on February 3, 1989; Allenspark 2SE −38°F (January 12, 1963); Wild Basin −34°F and Bear Lake −33°F (February 1, 2011); the newer town stations −28°F and −27°F (February 2, 2011).

Since 2002, when the newer town stations start, it's been gentler in town; besides February 2011, the worst mornings were March 2, 2002 (−21°F and −18°F at the town stations), December 7, 2005 (−25°F and −22°F) and January 6, 2017 and February 14, 2021 (−18°F to −19°F). Our planning low is built on the winters since 1995-96, and at both newer town stations it lands right on the coldest reading since 2002, −28°F and −27°F. The old basin records are why we keep a margin anyway. Bear Lake shows the other side: its −33°F in 2011 went 7°F past the −26°F the map plans for there, in an outbreak that ran colder up high than in town.

USDA's 2023 map puts ZIP code 80517 in zone 5a, built on the average of each winter's coldest night. The newer town stations average −15°F and −14°F, and the long-record station, reaching back to 1917, −20°F. We plan for the bad night, so downtown is MFTC 4a.

What you can grow in Estes Park

Winter isn't what stops most fruit here. Nearly everything below has come through −35°F or colder, past the valley's −23°F to −30°F planning lows, and we keep that margin on purpose for a 1951 kind of winter. The limits are the season (104 to 116 frost-free days in town), frost into late May and June, wind and elk. CSU's mountain tree fact sheet calls about 7,500 feet a dividing line for many trees but says a warm, south-facing site can carry a plant higher. A Boulder County master gardener pointed mountain growers to hardy apples, plums and sour cherries, early-ripening varieties and a pollen source within about 100 feet; our pollination maps show what pollenizes what.

South-facing slopes and benches above town, about −24°F to −27°F (MFTC 4a and 4b)

Apples: Haralson (that Castle Pines chart lists it to 8,500 feet), Wealthy, and early apples like Zestar!® (−40°F) and Mantet (−50°F). Pears: Summercrisp (to 8,000 feet on the chart, which calls it very hardy and blight resistant) and Ure. Plums: Toka with Superior, and Mount Royal (−40°F); the chart tops Superior and Mount Royal out at 7,500 feet, so give them your warmest spot. Tart cherries: Evan's Bali (to 9,000 feet on the chart) and Meteor (−40°F). Sweet cherries on your best spring ground: Lapins and Gold. Apricots: Westcot and Debbie's Gold (−50°F) have come through far colder, but expect fruit only some years. Skip peaches: Siberian C (−35°F), the hardiest we know, ripens very late.

Downtown, the toe slopes and the canyon, about −27°F to −29°F (MFTC 4a)

Stick to −40°F and colder for trees. Apples: Parkland (−50°F), Norland (−40°F), Frostbite (−45°F) and Haralson. Applecrabs: Kerr and Trailman (−50°F and −60°F; if you only plant one tree, make it one of these), and Centennial (−50°F), which showed zero winter injury at Ed Schultz's after a winter that hit −47°F. Crabapple: Dolgo, which CSU lists to 8,000 feet, best in a warm spot. Pears: Bolshaya, Krasnobokaya (−50°F) and Summercrisp. Plums: Brookred, Pipestone (−40°F) and Toka. Tart cherry: Evan's Bali. Berries: Montana Black Currant (we've never seen winter damage on it), Red Lake currant (−40°F), Pixwell gooseberry (−40°F) and Honeoye strawberry (−50°F).

Meadow flats, creek bottoms and Big Elk Meadows, −29°F to −30°F and 5°F to 6°F behind downtown at bloom

Crabs and applecrabs: Dolgo, Kerr, Trailman and Rescue (−60°F). Cherries: Nanking Cherry (CSU lists it to 8,500 feet) and the dwarf sour cherries Romeo and Juliet (−50°F). Shrubs CSU lists to 8,000 or 8,500 feet: Serviceberry, Chokecherry and Aronia Berry, all −50°F. Bush fruit: Honeyberry, Montana Black Currant, Golden Currant (−50°F) and gooseberries.

Roots, wind, water and the local troubles

Wind is the big one. In May 2024 gusts dropped trees across Highway 7 south of town, and a local pointed out their roots were huge but very shallow. A windbreak at least as tall as your fruit trees and 40 to 60 percent dense helps, as long as it doesn't cross the slope below them and dam the cold. CSU says a snow fence upwind holds snow over young roots, and roots are the weak link: at Ed Schultz's farm in Gallatin Gateway, Bud 118 apple rootstock has seen near −50°F under snow with no damage. Keep mulch off the trunk (CSU says it invites rodents and insects), and wrap young, thin-barked trunks from fall to spring or paint them with white interior latex diluted 50 percent against sunscald.

Fence out elk and deer, and watch for rodents. In this dry country, use drip, the only irrigation we advise for fruit trees in dry country, and keep trees out of lawn sprinklers, which CSU ties to root rot. Fire blight hits apples and pears along the Front Range. Pick well-drained ground and amend the whole planting area, not just a hole (CSU). And follow Bob Purvis's rules: plant on a slope, ideally east-facing, but not on a windswept hilltop or down in the bottom, and clear brush that dams cold at the foot of a slope.

Fruit history here

There isn't much. The Estes Valley was ranch and dude-ranch country: Griff Evans ran the old Estes ranch from 1867, Lord Dunraven held about 6,000 acres as a hunting preserve, and the MacGregors homesteaded at the foot of Lumpy Ridge. Colorado was a top apple state in the late 1800s, but the orchards were down along the Front Range. We found no orchard, u-pick or cidery in the valley, though a Colorado foothills grower did find an apple or crab tree at 8,370 feet on Forest Service land.

Questions people ask

What hardiness zone is Estes Park, Colorado?

USDA's 2023 map puts Estes Park's ZIP code, 80517, in zone 5a, built on an average winter's coldest night (about −15°F downtown on our map). We plan for the bad night: downtown plans for −28°F (MFTC 4a), and nearly all the valley's growing ground falls between −30°F and −23°F, MFTC 4a to 4b.

When is the last frost in Estes Park?

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 medians put the last 32°F on May 25 on the south side of the valley and May 30 west of downtown, and one spring in ten as late as June 10 to June 23. The last 28°F, where open blossoms start dying, comes around May 15. The first fall frost comes around September 12 to 19, for 104 to 116 frost-free days.

What fruit trees grow in Estes Park?

Hardy apples, crabs and applecrabs, pears, plums and tart cherries, plus currants, gooseberries, honeyberries, Nanking cherries and serviceberries. CSU lists Dolgo crabapple to 8,000 feet and Nanking cherry and serviceberry to 8,500 feet. Sweet cherries and apricots belong only on warm slopes, and peaches are a poor bet in a season this short.

Can you grow apples in Estes Park?

Yes, hardy, early apples. Haralson (−45°F), Wealthy (−50°F), Zestar!® (−40°F) and Mantet (−50°F) have all come through far colder than downtown's −28°F planning low, and Dolgo crabapple and Kerr applecrab are the surest bets. Plant on a sunny slope off the river and creek bottoms; the short season is the real limit.

Why is Estes Park so windy?

Downslope windstorms hit the northern Front Range mainly from October through March, and Colorado's state climatologist calls December through February the windy season. Gusts of about 100 mph hit Estes Park in the December 2025 chinook windstorm. Wind mixes out cold pools, but it breaks trees, so plant with shelter.

Does Lake Estes freeze?

Mostly, yes. The east end near the power plant stays open all winter, and stretches of the Big Thompson run free. At 185 acres the lake is too small to warm its shore, so plant lakeside lots like the rest of the floor, for −28°F to −29°F.

Warmer spots, colder spots

Here's the number to plan for at named places on the map, warmest first. Each one is the 1-in-30-year low for that spot: the cold hardiness calculator's number from the same weather stations, sharpened by our microclimate model for the ground right there. Zone is our MFTC zone, set by that one bad night, not by an average.

The weather stations behind it

These are the long-record stations in and around this map, with each one's own numbers since the winter of 1995-96. The last column is this map's 30-year number right at the station, which won't match the station exactly: it's a blend of the stations around it, the way the calculator works everywhere.

Source: NOAA records through ACIS, winters 1995-96 through 2025-26. What the "carried forward," "gaps filled" and AWOS rows mean is explained in how our microclimate maps work.